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This page is part of a website based
on the life and achievements of eighteenth-century inventor Henry Cort. Please email site controller Eric
Alexander with any comments or queries. |
THE CROWLEY BUSINESS
Sir Ambrose Crowley pioneered the sort of
factory that became commonplace during the Industrial Revolution. In earlier times manufacturing was done in
people’s homes.
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His three vertically integrated factories near Sunderland
constituted the largest unit of concentrated industrial production in
Britain, with about a thousand workers. From account of Sir Ambrose Crowley in
François Crouzet, The First Industrialists: the problem of origins
(Cambridge University Press 1985). |
His career starts in the seventeenth
century in Stourbridge, where his father, another Ambrose Crowley, has built up
a big iron business.
After his mother’s death, family circumstances
change: his father marries again and becomes a Quaker.
The new surroundings do not suit young
Ambrose. He leaves in 1689, taking with
him expertise gathered in the iron trade.
Starting in London, he gathers capital to
invest in the North-East: first in Sunderland, then at Winlaton, on the
fast-flowing Derwent (a tributary of the Tyne).
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During the period 1707-9 his undertakings in Co. Durham contained two
slitting mills, two forges, four steel furnaces, many warehouses, and
innumerable smithies producing a wide variety of ironmongery. From entry for
Sir Ambrose Crowley in Oxford DNB. |
He imports iron from Sweden and converts it
to a variety of artefacts that he sends to London, where he has a warehouse at Greenwich
and a shop, the “Doublet”, in Thames Street.
He soon becomes the biggest ironmonger in
the capital, with contracts to supply all the naval dockyards.
Knighthood and a career in politics follow:
you can explore the details in the New DNB.
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The firm which Crowley founded was continued by his son John and by
his grandsons and lasted well into the reign of Queen Victoria, prospering
from all the wars in the century following his death. From entry for
Sir Ambrose Crowley in Oxford DNB. |
He dies in 1713. His son John also inherits grandfather’s interests at
Stourbridge.
John faces stronger competition than his
father, losing the Portsmouth Dockyard contract to John
Attwick in 1722.
On John’s death his widow Theodosia takes
over, helped for a while by Sir Ambrose’s “two grandsons”. London trade directories show her continuing
as an ironmonger at 151 Upper Thames Street, London, and running the Winlaton
works, until her death in 1782.
Late in the 1760s she enlists the help of Isaiah Millington (named as "Mr Millington cashier
at the Warehouses of business" in her 1781 will).
After her death, Millington buys up a chunk
of the business from her executors for £7690.9s.5d, and runs it for several
years as "Crowley, Millington & Co". His descendants sell up the Winlaton works around 1845.
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RELATED TOPICS Cort’s promotion
efforts 1783-6 Shropshire
and Staffordshire ironmasters |
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